Performance Analysis of a Commercial Scale Solar Chimney Power Plant in Oman

Abstract

This paper presents a performance study of a commercial-scale solar chimney power plant under Oman climate conditions. A simple mathematical model is presented and validated against the Manzanares prototype and is used to estimate the solar chimney performance parameters for a full-scale commercial power plant to be located in Marmul, Oman. This location is suitable for solar power application owing to its high solar resource and geographical characteristics. Averaged solar data from NASA POWER database was retrieved and synthesized to generate the annual hourly radiation. The model yielded estimates of the collector efficiency, updraft velocity and potential electrical energy that can be generated. The capacity factor and land use requirement were also determined and compared with other solar power technologies in use today.